Big Buddha in Ningbo

Yes this is another post featuring a big Buddha but this time it’s in a city you’ve probably never heard of.

Ningbo is a seaport city of around 2 million people facing the East China sea, not far from Shanghai. The city is primarily oriented around trade and while it isn’t particularly famous it did have one interesting brush with history when during World War II the Japan bombed the city with fleas carrying the bubonic plague. From this (and many other atrocities) you can get an idea why China still has such a deep hatred for their easterly neighbors.

I visited for a little over a day at the end of my previous trip around Jiangnan province and was pleasantly surprised to find clean and modern city, quite different from most other middle-tier Chinese cities. After being treated to a sumptuous lunch I was taken to a brand new temple about half an hour outside the city center. Clearly the economic troubles were having little effect here as the temple had one of the biggest bronze Buddhas I had ever seen sitting atop the hillside.

After this we paid a visit to the ancestral home of Chiang Kai-Shek nearby who was the Nationalist leader of China before the uprising of the Communist party (whom he had attempted to eradicate after the Japanese surrender in WWII). Surprisingly Chinese sentiments towards him are quite good (at least the people I spoke to) and the museum paints a fair picture of his life without any demonization you might expect. He died in Taipei in 1975.

In the evening we went for dinner in a restaurant near the port district. I have discussed at length in the past about my hatred for seafood but somehow everywhere I go people always want me to taste the local marine wildlife. Whilst most of the dinner was delicious this time I got to try “hairy crabs” which believe me are as unappealing as they sound. I really cannot fathom what makes people want to crack open these Alien facehugger-esq creatures and suck out their “tasty” flesh. For future reference this is how it makes me feel to eat one of these:

Originally from the UK, David is designer and wanderer currently based in Tokyo. Prior to this, he lived in China and still returns frequently to continue exploring this vast and varied land. He started Randomwire in 2003 to chronicle his travels and occasional musings. Feel free to drop him a line.

Enjoyed the article, picture at the bottom made me laugh, I live in China myself, have tried pretty much everything, but generally draw the line at tentacles, but I’ll try most things once, except for maybe fried bugs. Also while I like meat off the bone I generally don’t have enough time in the day to spend 20 minutes extracting 0.00004 grams of meat from anything.

It’s funny the comment posted above, people really do get insecure about the smallest of things.